Opinion + Lord Browne | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/commentisfree+politics/lord-browne
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English won't survive in the education market | Sofie Bucklandhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/mar/10/english-education-market-ucl
UCL's plan to cut one-to-one English tutorials shows how the subject is being devalued in the 'university-as-business' process<p>Last week University College London announced to English students, of which I am one, that their one-on-one tutorials are to be cut. Undergraduate students currently have four hour-long sessions with an academic each term. These are to be replaced with half-hour sessions focused solely on submitted work.</p><p>The cuts were explained as being unrelated to the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/oct/11/tuition-fees-graduates-browne-review" title="Guardian: Browne review at a glance">Browne review</a> and the resulting reduction in teaching grants and raising of fees. To some extent this is true. Pressures on departments to extend more lucrative MA and PhD courses at the expense of undergraduate teaching are not new, though cuts to teaching grants inevitably accelerate them. They are part of the ongoing process to turn higher education into a business, introducing a market not just between universities but between departments within them.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/mar/10/english-education-market-ucl">Continue reading...</a>English and creative writingEducationHigher educationUniversity fundingUCL (University College London)Student financeStudentsMoneyStudent politicsProtestLord BrownePoliticsUK newsThu, 10 Mar 2011 11:07:40 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/mar/10/english-education-market-uclPhotograph: Pictor International/AlamyEnglish departments are 'not going to attract subsidies from investment banks to teach 14th-century literature'. Photograph: Pictor International/AlamyPhotograph: Pictor International/AlamyEnglish departments are 'not going to attract subsidies from investment banks to teach 14th-century literature'. Photograph: Pictor International/AlamySofie Buckland2011-03-10T11:07:40ZPenalising our universities was never part of the planhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/17/tuition-fees-higher-education-universities
Lord Browne's report on tuition fees is a very mixed blessing<p>There are reasonable grounds on which to criticise Lord Browne's proposals to uncap university tuition fees. But his rejection of a graduate tax is not one of them.</p><p>Under Lord Brown's plan, students would repay the loans incurred for fees once they are earning more than £21,000 per year. So graduates will pay a portion of their income for the privilege of having gone to university – exactly like a graduate tax, except better for universities, which get some money up front for each student they teach.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/17/tuition-fees-higher-education-universities">Continue reading...</a>Tuition feesEducation policyLord BrowneSat, 16 Oct 2010 23:08:59 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/17/tuition-fees-higher-education-universitiesEditorial2010-10-16T23:08:59ZWhy are we letting business big shots alter our society? | Catherine Bennetthttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/17/tuition-fees-lord-browne-universities
As a student, Lord Browne was once mocked by his professor. To some, his report may smack of revenge<p>Future victims of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/oct/15/browne-review-universities-cuts" title="">Lord Browne's report on higher education</a> should console themselves that it might have been a lot worse. Imagine the future for the humanities, for instance, if it had been written by his fellow businessman and Labour favourite, Lord Sugar. Or picture Sir Philip Green, who hails from the world of disposable clothing, contemplating the mind-blowing waste that is a classics degree. Or Digby Jones struggling, as he did with civil servants, to see the point of someone other than himself.</p><p>No, of all the random businessmen who might have been invited to redefine the purpose and funding of higher education, Lord Browne, a Cambridge graduate, is surely one of the most promising, a brilliant aesthete whose wide-ranging scholarship makes the late Virginia Woolf look like Norman Wisdom. A connoisseur of, among many things, precious ceramics and pre-Columbian artefacts, Lord Browne is sustained not only by memories of BP but by his love of Venice, where he owns an apartment, and by any number of David Hockneys. Even as a young man, when he was labouring to transform wilderness into BP profit, this future hammer of papyrology found time for opera, contemporary art and visits to artists' lofts.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/17/tuition-fees-lord-browne-universities">Continue reading...</a>Tuition feesUniversity fundingEducationEducation policyFurther educationLord BrowneSat, 16 Oct 2010 23:04:11 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/17/tuition-fees-lord-browne-universitiesCatherine Bennett2010-10-16T23:04:11ZCif readers on ... funding university life | The people's panelhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/12/university-life-peoples-panel
As Lord Browne releases his review of higher education funding, readers share their experiences of university finances <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/12/university-life-peoples-panel">Continue reading...</a>University fundingTuition feesHigher educationEducationUK newsLord BrowneTue, 12 Oct 2010 07:59:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/12/university-life-peoples-panelPhotograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesCif readers on ... university life Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesPhotograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesCif readers on ... university life Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesThe people's panel2010-10-12T07:59:01ZBrowne's university fees review is a rehearsal for the coalition's crunch time | Michael Whitehttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/11/michael-white-university-fees-review-rebellion
Lord Browne's review of university funding will enrage students, Lib Dems, and could stretch the coalition to breaking point<p>Crunch time looms for the coalition's hastily-engineered agreement. It might have been over Trident or nuclear power. It will come soon enough over George Osborne's 20 October package of cuts. But today will provide at least a dress rehearsal in the shape of Lord Browne's review of English university funding.</p><p>For days the drums have been sending an unmistakable signal from the Whitehall policy jungle that the former BP boss is offering the Tories roughly what they want: the lifting of the annual £3,290 cap on tuition fees (£10,000? £12,000 for Oxbridge?) and more realistic rates of interest on student loans.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/11/michael-white-university-fees-review-rebellion">Continue reading...</a>PoliticsUK newsLiberal-Conservative coalitionCuts and closuresEducationEducation policyLord BrowneMon, 11 Oct 2010 21:01:23 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/11/michael-white-university-fees-review-rebellionMichael White2010-10-11T21:01:23ZTuition fees: Don't price out the poor from university | Observer leaderhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/sep/12/observer-editorial-tuition-fees
The Tories have no problems with tuition fees. Many Lib Dems are opposed. Both will await Lord Browne's report with interest<p><strong>The following correction was printed in the Observer's For the record column, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2010/sep/19/for-the-record">Sunday 19 September 2010</a></strong></p><p>Lord Browne was the former chief executive of BP, not the chairman, as we said in here. In addition, the cap on university tuition fees is £3,290 for 2010/11, not £3,225, which was the full amount for the 2009/10 academic year.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/sep/12/observer-editorial-tuition-fees">Continue reading...</a>Tuition feesHigher educationStudentsEducationLiberal-Conservative coalitionPoliticsLord BrowneSat, 11 Sep 2010 23:06:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/sep/12/observer-editorial-tuition-feesObserver editorial2010-09-11T23:06:00ZCatherine Bennett on Lord Browne's penchant for £20 cigarshttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/10/comment.comment
Why didn't Browne have the manly decency to buy cheaper wine glasses, to make Chevalier feel at home?<p>After the Mail on Sunday won the right, last week, to publish some of the accusations of Jeff Chevalier, Lord Browne's vengeful ex-boyfriend, it seemed worth waiting until Sunday before passing judgment on its annihilation of the (former) BP chief executive. After all, there had been every reason for the same newspaper to publish the Tracey Temple diaries, which exposed our deputy prime minister as a work-based sexual predator, unfit for his office. Maybe John Browne had done something equally - in an oily kind of way - compromising, or disagreeable?</p><p>And, in his quiet way, he had. "John smoked Epicure No 2 cigars, at £20 each, four times a day," announced one of the most prominent pull-quotes last Sunday, halfway through a six-page special entitled "Downfall of the Sun King". Epicures, indeed! Even though there is no evidence that the cigars were bought with profits that should have gone to poor, widowed shareholders, that hardly justifies this ostentatious smoking choice, when a perfectly good Petit Robusto may be had for as little as £9.50.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/10/comment.comment">Continue reading...</a>Lord BrowneWed, 09 May 2007 23:17:02 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/10/comment.commentCatherine Bennett2007-05-09T23:17:02ZMary Riddell: The perils of taking a liberty with the truthhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/06/comment.pressandpublishing
Lord Browne's downfall has nothing to do with homophobia and everything to with his mendacity<p>Most people in and outside BP knew he was gay, but fewer imagined he had much of a private life. When would he find the time? And yet today, as more revelations emerge from his former boyfriend, Jeff Chevalier, Browne is the valedictory scandal of the Blair era. However shaky the Prime Minister's legacy might look, he has forged a more liberal and open society bolstered by civil partnerships and equality laws.</p><p>So how ironic that the head of 'Blair Petroleum', feted and knighted by government, should become the Oscar Wilde of suitedandbooted.com, the website where, as he omitted to tell a court, he met his partner. All that remains, supposedly, is the long penance once offered up by John Profumo. I suspect, though, that the homeless will have to look elsewhere for their soup.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/06/comment.pressandpublishing">Continue reading...</a>Newspapers & magazinesMediaOilBusinessWorld newsLord BrowneSat, 05 May 2007 23:04:10 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/06/comment.pressandpublishingMary Riddell2007-05-05T23:04:10ZSecrets and lieshttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/04/secretsandlies
It is understandable that Lord Browne did not broadcast his sexuality - there are many reasons to be cautious about coming out of the closet.<p>To many, Lord Browne's sudden, costly <a href="http://business.theguardian.com/story/0,,2070239,00.html">resignation from BP</a>, now that his private life as a gay man has been made public, will seem dramatic - perhaps even hysterical. Like several gay men in public life before him, his sexuality was an open secret. In retrospect, it is surprising that the tabloids have only now managed to find something on him that they can sell and make stick.</p><p>However, even years after the first TV gay kiss, the end of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_28">section 28</a>, the beginning of civil partnerships, and the celebration of gay men from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elton_John">Elton John</a> to <a href="http://commentisfree.theguardian.com/peter_tatchell/profile.html">Peter Tatchell</a> as national treasures, many men and no doubt women don't, won't or can't step over the threshold and come out of the closet. Why?</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/04/secretsandlies">Continue reading...</a>House of LordsBPLGBT rightsLord BrowneSexualityFri, 04 May 2007 09:30:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/04/secretsandliesMark Vernon2007-05-04T09:30:00ZOut at workhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/03/outatwork
Lord Browne's downfall reveals that the myth of a 'tolerant' society is exactly that.<p>The "scandalous" nature of the <a href="http://business.theguardian.com/story/0,,2070924,00.html">Lord Browne story</a> reveals much about the pervasive homophobia bubbling under the surface in our modern, "tolerant" society. The main issue should be that he lied in court - but instead, it turns into yet another gay witchhunt - led, of course, by the gay community's friends in <a href="http://business.theguardian.com/story/0,,2071115,00.html">the right-wing press</a>.</p><p>The Mail seems intent on constantly presenting homosexuals as deviants leading shameful lives of drug-fuelled perversity. It seems that Mail readers can't get enough of this tripe - any excuse to express their infamous "moral outrage". The rightwing press loves to titillate over the details of lurid affairs, and when gay men are the focus, the tone turns immediately to disgust and condemnation - which in turn contributes to a "common perception" that gay men are not to be trusted in positions of high office. The "pink plateau" is reinforced, and the country ultimately loses out by not allowing talented individuals to contribute to the economy and public life for fear that their "unnatural urges" makes them high-risk.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/03/outatwork">Continue reading...</a>House of LordsLGBT rightsLord BrowneThu, 03 May 2007 18:20:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/03/outatworkIvan Massow2007-05-03T18:20:00ZLeader: Lord Browne's resignationhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/03/politics.business
<p>Lord Browne is a public figure whose business activities are a proper area for media investigation. There has been no shortage of commentary about his stewardship of BP, both positive and negative, especially in the light of an explosion at one of the company's oil refineries in Texas in 2005, which killed 15 people, and the huge sums he has been paid. The Mail on Sunday, like any newspaper, has always been free to publish stories about this, or other aspects of BP's activities, not least the close links between the company and the government. It could have done so already on the basis of conversations with Lord Browne's former partner, Jeff Chevalier, without naming him. But the evidence points to the fact that the paper's original focus was not simply a business story. It also wanted (as is clear from court documents) to write about the relationship between a powerful business leader at the margins of celebrity and a young Canadian man.</p><p>In a happier world this should not have been enough to interest a newspaper. Homosexuality, it is comforting to think, is now no sort of scandal. Prejudice has become rarer. Last Monday, regulations came into force banning discrimination in services from hotels to the health service. But it is difficult to avoid concluding that at the heart of this case is the fact that Lord Browne was gay. He chose not to discuss the matter for reasons that may have involved both personal reticence and his business dealings with countries less tolerant than Britain. This left him vulnerable after his four-year relationship ended, even though - as is apparent from BP's own investigations - there was no scandal to expose. The intrusion involved dragging a failed relationship into print - no matter that the European convention on human rights offers the assurance that "everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence".</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/03/politics.business">Continue reading...</a>PoliticsBusinessOilHouse of LordsWorld newsUK newsLord BrowneWed, 02 May 2007 23:06:14 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/03/politics.businessLeader2007-05-02T23:06:14ZThe truth of the matterhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/02/yesterdaylordbrownesnamebe
Looking at other legal cases Lord Browne must have felt confident of his ability to restrain his former lover from speaking out. So what went wrong?<p>Yesterday <a href="http://business.theguardian.com/story/0,,2070239,00.html">Lord Browne</a>'s name became synonymous with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Aitken">Jonathan Aitken</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Archer">Jeffrey Archer</a> - previously men of influence and reputation, exposed as perjurers, who must have wished they had never gone to court. Rather than protecting his <a href="http://commentisfree.theguardian.com/peter_wilby/2007/05/business_exposure.html">private life</a>, details of Lord Browne's affairs are now front-page news and his resignation from a company he has been at for 41 years has cost him an estimated £15m. Given that in 21st century Britain no right-thinking person would think any the less of Lord Browne for having what by all accounts was - at least until the end - a loving homosexual relationship, he must be wondering how on earth he finds himself in this place.</p><p>Until relatively recently there was no privacy law in this country. The concept of a right to a private life was introduced by the <a href="http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts1998/19980042.htm">Human Rights Act</a> in 1998 and until last year the courts had struggled with achieving a fair balance between that right and the right of freedom of expression also enshrined in the act. Last year the law of privacy as it applies in the UK was clarified in the case of <a href="http://www.carter-ruck.com/recentwork/Loreena_McKennitt_PressRelease30_03_07.html">McKennitt v Ash</a>, where the court granted an injunction to restrain publication of a book detailing aspects of McKennitt's private life by her former friend. The court ruled that details of a person's private relationships, emotions, diet and health, parenting, politics and home would be protected unless there was an overriding public interest in revealing the information - to expose serious hypocritical behaviour or wrongdoing, for example. Although Ash - correctly - argued she had a right to tell her story, the court ruled that "if a person wishes to reveal publicly information about aspects of his or her relations with other people, which would on the face of it attract the protection of privacy rights, any such revelation should be crafted, so far as possible, to protect the other person's privacy".</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/02/yesterdaylordbrownesnamebe">Continue reading...</a>House of LordsBPLawLord BrowneWed, 02 May 2007 17:45:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/02/yesterdaylordbrownesnamebeCaroline Kean2007-05-02T17:45:00ZBusiness exposurehttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/02/businessexposure
If the board of BP and its shareholders were satisfied with Lord Browne's work, why should anyone care about his private life?<p>When it comes to exposing politicians, I have no doubts. Parliamentary candidates routinely use wives and children as props in their election campaigns; ministers consult advisers on how to burnish their public image; and increasingly our leaders ask us to judge them on character rather than policy. But business leaders?</p><p><a href="http://business.theguardian.com/story/0,,2070239,00.html">Lord Browne</a>, who resigned as chief executive of BP yesterday, may have been so close to new Labour that his company became known as Blair Petroleum. But he had never stood for election, had not pretended to a normal family life, and had never publicly denounced gays or, so far as we know, discriminated against them. So there was no hypocrisy. Why then do we need to know about his gay lover? If the board of BP and its shareholders were satisfied with his performance, why should anyone care about his private life?</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/02/businessexposure">Continue reading...</a>House of LordsBPLord BrowneWed, 02 May 2007 11:35:14 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/02/businessexposurePeter Wilby2007-05-02T11:35:14ZLord Browne: public interest or prurience?https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/02/lordbrownepublicinterestor1
Morning conference: do revelations about the private life of BP's chief add up to a business story?<p>Was there a genuine public interest defence for the Mail on Sunday's four-month legal battle to out <a href=" http://business.theguardian.com/story/0,,2070239,00.html">Lord Brown</a> ?</p><p>Associated Newspapers, the Mail's owner, had argued that it was motivated by a business story concerning BP. <a href=" http://business.theguardian.com/story/0,,2070186,00.html">Yesterday's statement</a> from Peter Wright, editor of MoS, repeated this point saying: "We would like to reiterate that the story we originally sought to publish was a business story involving issues of great importance to shareholders and employers of BP. Lord Browne chose to suppress this story by arguing to the high court that, because the story was supplied to us by his former lover, Mr Chevalier, it breached his right to a private life under the Human Rights Act."</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/02/lordbrownepublicinterestor1">Continue reading...</a>Lord BrowneWed, 02 May 2007 10:41:28 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/02/lordbrownepublicinterestor1Murray Armstrong2007-05-02T10:41:28ZDown and out in the Cityhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/01/downandoutinthecity
The outing of Lord Browne was an unjustified intrusion into his private life.<p>Lord Browne, chief executive of petroleum giant BP, and one of Britain's most successful businessmen, has <a href="http://business.theguardian.com/story/0,,2069965,00.html">resigned</a> after he was exposed as having lied about his private life.</p><p>He had been expected to stand down shortly, following shareholder <a href="http://business.theguardian.com/story/0,,2069949,00.html">dissatisfaction</a> with his performance and a series of disasters - including an oil spill in Alaska and the tragic Texas refinery fire which resulted in 15 deaths - but what prompted Lord Browne's sudden resignation was the revelation that he lied in court about how he met his former male partner - a lie he has now <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/01/nbrowne201.xml">acknowledged</a> and for which he has apologised.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/01/downandoutinthecity">Continue reading...</a>House of LordsBPLGBT rightsLord BrowneTue, 01 May 2007 21:10:24 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/01/downandoutinthecityPeter Tatchell2007-05-01T21:10:24ZLeader: In praise of... Lord Brownehttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/jul/25/oil.comment
<p>There are many critics of "big oil" for its environmental damage and sometimes dubious exploitation of countries with valuable oil reserves - and in BP's case there is a controversial alliance in Russia. But BP under Lord Browne has pledged to spend $8bn on renewable energy over the next 10 years, while the company is also one of the world's largest makers of solar panels. Lord Browne himself was warning nearly a decade ago of the threat from global warming. While oil companies may not win many popularity contests, UK pension funds holders - major investors in BP - and the 96,000 people employed by BP around the world all have cause to admire Lord Browne's achievements.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/jul/25/oil.comment">Continue reading...</a>OilBusinessWorld newsLord BrowneMon, 24 Jul 2006 23:06:32 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/jul/25/oil.commentLeader2006-07-24T23:06:32Z